Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman
Friedman in 2005
Born	Thomas Loren Friedman (1953-07-20) July 20, 1953 (age 63) St. Louis Park, Minnesota, U.S.
Residence	Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Minnesota Brandeis University St Antony's College, Oxford
Occupation	Author Columnist
Spouse(s)	Ann Bucksbaum
Children	Orly and Natalie
Website	ThomasLFriedman.com

Thomas Loren Friedman (born July 20, 1953) is an American journalist, author, and three time Pulitzer Prize winner.

Friedman currently writes a weekly column for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues.

Friedman was born on July 20, 1953 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Margaret Blanche (Phillips) and Harold Abe Friedman. Harold, who was Vice President of a ball bearing company, United Bearing, died of a heart attack in 1973, when Tom was nineteen years old. Margaret, who served in the United States Navy during World War II and studied Home Economics at the University of Wisconsin, was a homemaker and a part-time bookkeeper. Margaret was also a Senior Life Master duplicate bridge player, and died in 2008. Friedman has two older sisters, Shelly and Jane.

From an early age, Friedman, whose father often took him to the golf course for a round after work, wanted to be a professional golfer. He played a lot of sports, and became serious about tennis and golf. He caddied at a local country club and in 1970 caddied for professional golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez when the US Open came to town.

Friedman is Jewish. He attended Hebrew school five days a week until his Bar Mitzvah, then St. Louis Park High School, where he wrote articles for his school's newspaper. He became enamored with Israel after a visit there in December 1968, and he spent all three of his high school summers living on Kibbutz HaHotrim, near Haifa. He has characterized his high school years as "one big celebration of Israel's victory in the Six-Day War."

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